Tinker Bell
(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Tinker Bell) Doug (vo): Let's finish up Disneycember with Tinker Bell. Yeah, there's a strange while where Tinker Bell was extremely popular. It's weird, because the character's been around for years and years, but only now did the popularity just explode. Was this movie the cause of it? Maybe. Story Doug (vo): It opens literally with Tinker Bell's birth, which is kind of like what they say in the book. When a child laughs, that laugh goes to Neverland, and then suddenly, a fairy is born, only she's not born like a little baby, she's born fully grown. I guess it's like Pinocchio where the personality is just intact. Oh, am I analyzing it? It's fairy tales, and this is obviously made for little kids who just want to see Tinker Bell fly around, look pretty, do some magic, and...yeah, that's about it. The story is pretty standard, but you can tell it's written for little children. Tinker Bell is looking for her place to belong, and she's put with the Tinker Fairies. Yeah, who'd have thought? Tinker Bell is really good at...tinkering, putting things together, figuring out gears and such. Unfortunately, though, her inventions don't always work out that well, and that means that she can't join the group of fairies that leave Neverland and go into the other world. So Tinker Bell gets a group of fairies together and tries to have them teach her how to do various other things that can get her into the other world. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem very good at it, she's only good at tinkering and making stuff, and even that she's not that great either. Through hard work and determination, she will make everything really bad. Yeah, it's one of those stories where she screws up everything for everyone, but she also finds a way to make it better in the end, and a nice little compromise is made. Review Doug (vo): Actually, that is one of the few things I really admire about this movie, the message of compromise. That is to say, Tinker Bell eventually comes to terms with her gifts, but she also pushes really hard to get what she wants, and what she feels is rightfully hers. I admire films like ''Wreck-It Ralph'' or ''The Nightmare'''' Before Christmas'' that sort of say, "Just be happy with what you have", but I also like stories like this, where it's "Be happy with what you have, but don't be afraid to go a little further, too. Fight for what you really want." Sometimes, you get it, sometimes, you don't, and sometimes, it's halfway in between, like what we have here. But is there anything really that gripping for adults in this? Not especially. This is something that's written for little, little kids, but for little, little kids, it's innocent enough. (Clips focusing on the animation and the stuff that the fairies do are shown) Doug (vo): It definitely has a visual style. Some of the backgrounds are very nice. The everyday items they use, from flowers and raindrops and such, are pretty clever. And the movie is trying to have a certain weight to it. The music especially is trying to give this grand choir going, "Ahhhh", make it seem really huge, and you know what? It's allowed. I mean, look at this animation style. This is clearly trying a lot harder than something like ''Twice Upon a Christmas''. They want it to look whimsical, they want it to feel like these characters are alive, and for the most part, they do a good job. Outside of that, there's not really that much to get into for adults, although I do love this one scene when she's testing her equipment. (That scene is shown. Tinker Bell is trying to use her nutcracker invention, but the nut accidentally flies out of the cracker and hits the face of a squirrel. After a beat, the squirrel starts crying and walks off) Doug (vo; chuckles): Why does that crack me up so much? Final thought Doug (vo): But aside from that, it's not incredibly smart, but it's not incredibly dumb either. It's a nice little innocent film to show your kids, and they'll get some creativity. There are slow moments, there's times where they need the emotion to set in, but there's also fast moments, and there's scenes where they throw in the little pop song and such. I'm definitely not going to put it on anytime soon, but if I have little kids and they wanted to watch this, I'd say it's a good thing to put on. I don't have nearly enough time to look at the dozens of sequels that came out afterwards. (DVD covers of all the ''Tinker Bell ''sequels are shown) I know, it's ironic, seeing how this was Sequel Month. But, like the movie said, compromise. It's a good thing. (Footage of all the previous direct-to-video/DVD Disney movies is shown) Doug (vo): And with that said, that wraps up Disneycember with the direct-to-DVD sequels. Was it as bad as I thought it was gonna be? Well, in some areas, it was even worse. But in some areas, it was actually okay, and, surprisingly, in others, I found myself having a good time. You can definitely tell which films were just rushed out and they didn't really care about, and which ones they wanted to put the extra time and effort into, even when they didn't need to put in the extra time and effort. I'm not gonna act like any of these were great, but I was shocked to find those couple that were actually...well, not only tolerable, but some legitimately entertaining. They were few, but I respected them. And the ones that were bad, like, REALLY bad, well, they'll bring us a lot of laughs and mockery in just how awful they are. At least I can say, I saw them all and gave them a fair shot, and though I was shocked with how bad some of them were, I was shocked by how good some of them were. I guess sometimes, even when a company like Disney wants to throw their table scraps at us, you can actually take those table scraps and turn it into a good meal. It doesn't happen all the time, but enough times to get noticed. Folks, I hope you enjoyed this year's Disneycember, and if you're like me, you're anticipating what Disney has next to offer. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next year. (A scene in ''Tinker Bell, showing the fairies traveling around in London, is shown)'' Category:Disneycember Category:Transcripts Category:Disney Category:Content Category:Guides